This
essay tells the story of Robert Levine as a visiting professor in a Brazilian
university. He found cultural differences in regard with the concept of time
and the intercultural misunderstandings and conflicts that arise from the
variations in the temporal concepts of time.

He got a
dose of cultural shock in adjusting
to a new concept of social time, which reflects different cultural beliefs,
assumptions and values than he was habitual in his native country, i.e. US. He
found Brazilian timepieces inaccurate and none care about that except him. The
students came late to the class without expressing their guilty for being late.
Furthermore, he found that even the professors were not punctual. They made the
people wait for a long time. Likewise his experience with the landlord
suggested the same. Although he waited for his a longtime, he was unable to
meet him doubted, the people of Brazil make appointments but they never trouble
themselves respecting the value of time.

Discussion

Based on
the story, we could understand what the writer means the title “Time Talks,
with an Accent.” In the essay, he clearly told how the value of time between
two different countries is different through several anecdotes. These anecdotes
are based on the author’s personal experiences which makes him draws a
conclusion that time was talking. Time was talking about how a group of people
or a nation in a certain culture has their own value of time itself. The reason
why they have such value, then, may be could not be simply understood by
others. There are only the people of the group who can well explain it.
Therefore, people’s belief and rules about punctuality identifies the culture
in which he comes from, just as accent you have.